


Say the Words I Cannot Say (Say Them on Another Day)

by dressedupasmyself



Series: 30 Days of Klaroline (June 2020) [14]
Category: Little Women (2019), The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 19th Century, Artist Klaus Mikaelson, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Klaus is Amy and you can Fight Me about it, Little Women (2019) AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:15:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25223002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dressedupasmyself/pseuds/dressedupasmyself
Summary: “Oh,” Elijah said. “There is a girl.”Klaus pushed open the window, leaning precariously forward to stick his head out.“Hello there! Are you hurt?”The girl turned at Klaus’s call. She clutched at her bandage-covered hand, tears streaming from her face as she wept audibly. She was pretty, curly blonde hair spilling over her scarf. Klaus was certain he’d seen her before. He thought she might be the sheriff’s daughter from across the street.“I’m Caroline,” she sobbed, not exactly answering his question.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson, Elijah Mikaelson/Katherine Pierce
Series: 30 Days of Klaroline (June 2020) [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770547
Comments: 10
Kudos: 90





	Say the Words I Cannot Say (Say Them on Another Day)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [therealmuffinman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/therealmuffinman/gifts).



> Title taken from the song "I For You" by The All-American Rejects.
> 
> For therealmuffinman, since she waited EXTREMELY PATIENTLY for me to finish this. Also, Little Women (2019) is the best movie in existence and I will not be swayed from that opinion.

_1862_

“Niklaus, do you recognise what a privilege it is for you to learn these things?”

Klaus didn’t react to Elijah’s words, his eyes trained firmly out of the window. He stood on a chair, one foot propped up on the windowsill, and he knew his behaviour was likely to drive his brother mad.

Good.

“You realise that if you fail to learn by my hand, father will replace me with a more suitable tutor?” Elijah must be frustrated if he’s already pulling out the Mikael-card. “It might be Finn or Freya if you’re lucky, but my bet would be on awful aunt Dahlia.”

Elijah was exceptional at manipulation, and Klaus was about to sit down and give Elijah’s poor jaw a chance to stop clenching quite so viciously, when he spotted something.

“There’s a girl out there.”

Elijah sighed. “No there’s not.”

“Yes, brother, there is a girl.”

Elijah dropped his pen onto the table, and Klaus turned to look at him. “Niklaus.”

Klaus responded by pulling another chair closer to the one he was standing on. The high windows of the library made it frustratingly difficult to stare out at the garden while sitting down.

“If I humour you, just this once, will you cooperate?”

“Yes, now will you hurry up?”

Elijah stood and elegantly stepped onto the chair Klaus had prepared for him. He looked out of the window, fully prepared to see nothing but the gravel road, hills, and the Forbes’ house across the street.

“Oh,” Elijah said. “There is a girl.”

Klaus pushed open the window, leaning precariously forward to stick his head out.

“Hello there! Are you hurt?”

The girl turned at Klaus’s call. She clutched at her bandage-covered hand, tears streaming from her face as she wept audibly. She was pretty, curly blonde hair spilling over her scarf. Klaus was certain he’d seen her before. He thought she might be the sheriff’s daughter from across the street.

“I’m Caroline,” she sobbed, not exactly answering his question.

“Hello, Caroline,” Klaus answered. “I’m Klaus.”

She sniffled, and Klaus took it as a good sign, because at least she wasn’t crying quite so hard anymore. Next to him, Elijah was watching on with wide eyes.

“I know,” Caroline said. “You brought Katherine home when she sprained her ankle at your mother’s ball.”

Right, Katherine. She and her sister, Elena, had been living with the sheriff ever since their parents died in a tragic fire. Klaus had asked her to accompany him to his mother’s infuriating annual event, largely out of spite, since his mother insisted they not go alone, and Klaus knew that Elijah had a soft spot for the feisty girl.

Katherine, of course, had been more trouble than she was worth, and Klaus’s patience had worn thin.

“Right,” Klaus said.

“I never would have sprained my ankle,” Caroline insisted, “I have lovely small feet, the best in the family.”

Klaus felt his lips turn up, and out of the corner of his eye he noticed Elijah frowning in disapproval. Klaus thought he rather liked this girl, especially when she let out another wail.

“But I can never go home again because I’m in so much trouble.” She unwrapped the cloth from her hand and held it up so they could see the angry red slashes that ran along her palm. “Look. Mr Saltzman hit me.”

_1868_

“Well, isn’t this just awful?”

Stefan didn’t appear to have heard Caroline, preoccupied with sneaking a glass of champagne beneath his jacket. She rolled her eyes and started towards the other side of the Mikaelsons’ larger than life garden, knowing that Stefan would follow.

Once they were out of sight from the rest of the wedding party, Stefan handed her the forbidden beverage with a satisfied smile. She took it.

“What’s so awful about a wedding, Caroline? Shouldn’t you be happy for Katherine?”

Caroline quickly gulped down half of the champagne, then handed it back to Stefan who followed suit.

“Well, Katherine’s married, Klaus is off to Europe and now that you’re single again, it’ll be no time at all before you discover how big the world is outside of Mystic Falls.” She huffed. “I’m just not good like Elena so I’m angry and I’m restless.”

Stefan’s face pinched just a little at the mention of his no-longer-girlfriend. Caroline spared a moment to consider that it might have been too soon to bring up Elena, then shrugged it off. It had been months.

Stefan abandoned their empty glass behind a bush, and they kept walking.

“You don’t have to stay here, Care.”

Caroline took a deep breath at his words, her eyes prickling as the emotion of the entire day caught up with her.

She’d been friends with Stefan since she was thirteen and Katherine invited him and his brother Damon over to play. Caroline had liked that he let her be the captain of their pirate ship, even if Elena complained that Caroline ought to act like a lady and be a distressed damsel with her.

Stefan also had a habit of causing trouble in such a way that they never got caught, and if they did, Damon always took the blame.

“You can run off and join a pirate ship,” he suggested.

Caroline turned her head to look at him, and he could read her perfectly, of course, which is why his eyes widened and he shook his head.

“No, Caroline.”

“Stefan, come on.”

He held up his hands, walking faster so she had to run to keep up. “No.”

“It’s no use, Stefan, we’ve got to have it out!”

“We really don’t.”

“I have loved you ever since I have known you.” He stopped walking, but he still refused to look at Caroline. “I couldn’t help it. And I tried to show it, but you were always with Elena so I figured I’d never get the chance to tell you, which is fine.”

Caroline’s words were starting to flow faster, voice raising as she became agitated. He finally looked at her, and his expression was somewhere between hopelessness and pity.

“But I must make you hear me now, and give me an answer, because I cannot go on like this any longer.”

“Caroline – “, he started, and his dejected tone made burning tears well up behind her eyes.

“And I know that I’m not this great woman who gets everything right all the time, I’m nothing like Elena and I will never be good enough for you, but I figured you might love me –“

Stefan interrupted her with his hands on her shoulders. “Caroline, no, you’re a great deal too good for me.” Caroline tried to shake him off as her lip quivered, but his grip was strong. “I’m so grateful to you, and so proud and I don’t see why I could never love you the way I did Elena.”

Caroline’s heart felt like it missed a beat.

“You can’t?” Her voice sounded frail, and she hated it.

“I can’t change how I feel, and it would be a lie to say I do when I don’t,” his eyes were so sincere, and she wished that he’d been mean so she could blame him, have something to direct her anger onto, but instead she just felt hopeless.

“What if there isn’t anyone else?”

“There will be, Care. There’ll be someone who comes along and sees your stubbornness and your spirit, and they’ll love you for exactly who you are, the exact way you’ve always wanted to be loved.”

She tugged herself away from him, turning and rubbing angrily at the tears on her cheek. “Just go away.”

“Caroline –“

“Go.”

He did, leaving her to spill tears on the sleeve of her nice dress, and her mother would have something to say about that, but she would deal with it later.

_1869_

“What do they write, your bothersome siblings?”

Lucien’s disregarding tone irked Klaus, and he folded the letter he’d been reading to slip it back into his coat pocket.

“Rebekah doesn’t say anything about Henrik. I feel I should go back but they all say stay.”

“You can do nothing if you go back,” Lucien said, “The boy is sick, not lonely.”

Klaus’s jaw clenched. He liked Lucien well enough, so long as there were no personal matters involved. Lucien, as an only child, struggled to understand Klaus’s pained loyalty to his family.

“And anyway, you shouldn’t go home until you and Aurora are properly engaged. A girl like that won’t wait for you, you know.” Lucien’s tone was just the slightest touch bitter.

“Yes, and I still have quite a few paintings to sell,” Klaus agreed, but his voice sounded hollow even to himself.

Aurora was beautiful, and Klaus was sure that she’d look spectacular on his arm. For some reason, however, he found himself making excuses to delay his engagement proposal. He knew she’d say yes. He wondered if he really wanted her to.

He let the rocking motion of the carriage sooth him as he watched the faces of pedestrians pass them by. He hoped that Elijah and Freya would take good care of Henrik. Their youngest brother’s health had been fluctuating for the past few years, causing Klaus, and all the rest, to spend a cumbersome amount of time worrying for him.

Then he saw it, a flash of blonde curls and blue fabric, and he reached out a hand to clamp the driver’s shoulder.

“Stop the carriage.”

“What now, Nik?”

Klaus ignored Lucien, jumping out before they’d come to a complete stop, and ran back in the direction they’d come.

“Caroline!”

The girl turned, and she was just as beautiful as he remembered. She smiled, and it radiated across her entire face.

“Klaus!” She allowed him to swallow her up in a hug, and when he stepped back to look at her, her eyes seemed to drink him in.

“My, you’ve grown so much,” Klaus said, a little out of breath, and Caroline’s gaze turned accusing.

“You didn’t meet me at the hotel.”

“I couldn’t find you anywhere, love, I was there,” he promised, unable to help the smile that clung to his lips.

“You didn’t look hard enough.”

“Maybe I didn’t recognise you because you look so grown up.”

She rolled her eyes in familiar exasperation. “Oh, stop it.”

“I thought you liked that kind of thing?” he teased, and she shoved at him before changing the subject.

“Where’s Rebekah?”

“Oh, she’s in Germany, I think, travelling with Marcel. I’m travelling on my own now, for the most part.” He left out the bit where he tolerated Lucien for the sake of having someone by his side. “Are you chasing some handsome lad across Europe?”

Caroline’s smile dimmed just the slightest bit, and she shook her head. “No.”

Klaus felt his own heart constrict in the face of her pain, and he frowned. “I couldn’t believe Stefan turned you down. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she said, and she pasted on another smile. “I’m not.”

“No?” he asked.

“It’s always going to be Elena for him.” She sounded firm in her conviction. “I won’t spend my life competing with her.”

“And nor should you have to,” Klaus said, meaning it. “You’re wonderful, Caroline, beautiful and full of light. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.”

Her smile was smaller, but so much more real, and he allowed himself to bask in it for a few moments.

Caroline lay very still on the blanket, acutely aware of Klaus’s eyes raking over her every so often as he sketched her.

She’d stayed with him in Paris for two months before they moved to Rome. She wasn’t sure when exactly she’d made the decision to go with him. One day she was in Bulgaria, helping Katherine and Elijah search for her and Elena’s distant family, and the next she was faced with Klaus telling her he’d grown tired of Paris, and would she like to see Rome, as well?

It was deceptively easy to spend time with him. She never really considered it, seeing as she had always been preoccupied with Stefan, and Klaus had just been one of the Mikaelsons who occasionally invited them over for supper and sent extravagant Christmas cards.

She’d never noticed the way sunlight could bounce off his blond curls, or how his eyes would crinkle when she did something that amused him.

He was dramatic, too, and she thought that it would annoy her but instead she found that she appreciated how he’d blow the most inconsequential of events out of any sensible idea of proportion, yet when things mattered, he kept them close to his chest. It made her value the tiny smiles he’d give her when he thought she wasn’t looking, and the little trinkets he snuck into her bedroom so she’d have something to admire before she went to sleep.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, and she blinked sleepily up at the sky.

“You,” she said honestly.

“Won’t you elaborate, sweetheart?” He glanced up at her from below his lashes, dimples in place.

“Don’t be smug,” Caroline chastised. “It doesn’t agree with you.”

“Everything agrees with me, I’m delightful.” There was just enough of a tease in his voice to keep him from sounding conceited. “Then again, so are you, which is why I will paint you over and over, in every setting, so that when you inevitably leave, I will have something to look at while I pine for your company.”

“Can I see?”

He hesitated for only a second before handing over his sketchpad.

It wasn’t the first drawing of his that she’d seen, and not the first one he’d done of her, either. And yet, taking in the way he saw her, with laughing eyes and fingers pointing at the sky as she giggled at something decidedly unfunny, she couldn’t help but think that nobody else had ever bothered to properly _look_ at her before.

She was about to close the sketchbook and hand it back to him when another piece of paper peeked out, and having never been skilled at taming her curiosity, she gently tugged until the picture became clear.

It was her, of course. Klaus rarely seemed to draw anything else. It was old, the lines faded and paper discoloured, and Caroline wandered at the fact that he’d kept it all this time.

“Why did you keep this one?” she asked softly, and when she looked up, Klaus was watching her with a quiet intensity.

“It was the day at the beach,” he explained. “When I first met Aurora.”

Caroline’s breath hitched at the sudden reminder of Klaus’s soon-to-be fiancée. She closed the sketchbook and shoved it in his direction, avoiding his eyes. “Right.”

He took it, much gentler than she was. “I remember watching you with Stefan and thinking that to see you that happy was worth having to give you up.”

“And where is Aurora now?” Caroline was still clearly uncomfortable with the subject.

“She’s visiting her brother in London.” He hesitated. “Tell me what’s going through your pretty little mind, love.”

Caroline stood, the sudden proximity to Klaus becoming too much for her. She turned away to straighten her dress, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed Klaus standing too, but he made no move to get closer to her.

“Caroline.”

She twirled suddenly, tired of the helplessness that sat in her chest like a paperweight.

“Don’t marry her.”

Klaus’s expression evened out, and it was impossible to get a read on his reaction. “What?”

Caroline sighed, and since there was no taking back the words, she might as well follow through. “Don’t marry her.”

“Why?”

“You know why.” Caroline held Klaus’s gaze, making sure he could see how sincere she was.

Klaus’s jaw twitched, and he looked down at his feet. When he looked up again, his eyes were blazing. “Sweetheart, you know how I feel about you. You know that I would burn this entire world to a crisp if anything were to happen to you, and if you said the word, I’d come running without a second thought.” He stepped closer. “But I have no intention of being your rebound. Once I have you, I will not let you go.” He ran a finger down her cheek. “So if you cannot tell me that you are absolutely sure about what you want, don’t tell me anything at all.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Klaus waited for a moment longer, then nodded firmly. He stepped back, and she felt the loss deep in her bones as she watched him walk away.

_1870_

The carriage pulled up outside of the hotel Caroline had been staying at. Katherine had gone home two weeks prior after receiving a letter from Elijah about Henrik’s worsening condition, and had promised to arrange a way for Caroline to get home without travelling alone.

Caroline had wondered about Klaus, and whether his siblings had kept him informed about the situation. She found it difficult to believe that he wouldn’t have rushed home at the first sign of trouble, unless he hadn’t been made aware of the direness of Henrik’s illness.

The frantic note she’d received from him that morning, expressing his grief and outrage at Henrik’s passing, confirmed her suspicions about Elijah’s frugality when it came to sharing news.

Despite the awkwardness between them, Caroline didn’t have the heart to refuse his request for her company on the journey home.

The driver helped her load her luggage, then offered her his hand as she stepped into the carriage. She was wearing a black dress with very little frills, but it still took up quite a bit of space.

Klaus barely looked up at her, red-rimmed eyes trained firmly on the scenery outside of the window. He was also dressed in black, but he looked dishevelled in a way she hadn’t seen on him since they’d been children.

Caroline waited until they’d started moving before she spoke. “I’m so sorry.”

Klaus blinked, jaw clenched tightly. Caroline could see that he barely held himself together, sorrow and rage threatening to overwhelm him. Her heart warmed at his strength, and she reached out to take one of his trembling hands in hers.

“I know that I might not be your favourite person right now,” she said quietly, “and that you probably have no interest in what I have to say. But I will not let you go through this alone. I love you, Klaus, I do, and even though you are under no obligation to accept me after everything I’ve put you through, it doesn’t change the fact that I am here, and I am not going anywhere until you ask me to.”

Klaus looked at her, and for the first time ever, she had trouble reading his expression. For a moment, she was terrified. Out of everyone she knew, Klaus was always the one she could count on not to disregard her. He always took care to include her, to reach out to her when the thought hadn’t even crossed her other friends’ minds. Yet just then, she had no idea what he was thinking, no idea if she’d finally managed to push him away, properly. She hated the very thought.

“Caroline.”

And there it was, the softness he always held in his eyes when he looked at her. Even when she’d hurt him, even when she rejected him, he never lost sight of who she was and what he wanted from her.

“You don’t need to do anything right now,” Caroline assured him with a soft smile. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He seemed to slump forward, last bit of resolve leaving him completely. She raked her hands through his hair, pulled until he could rest his head on her lap. He was exhausted, and they had a long journey ahead of them.

The crunch of gravel under the carriage wheels were loud when Klaus and Caroline arrived at the Mikaelson home. It was still dark out, barely early enough for anyone to be awake.

Caroline allowed Klaus to help her step down onto the ground. His eyes lingered on hers for a moment longer than would usually be polite.

She let him handle the driver, thanking him for his service and instructing him to leave their luggage on the porch, to be dealt with when his siblings woke up.

He took her hand as they watched the carriage drive away, leaving them alone in the darkness of the garden. Klaus wasn’t looking at her, his entire demeanour screaming of restlessness. Caroline thought she understood the feeling.

“Would you like to take a walk?” she asked.

Klaus let out a breath, then held out his arm for her to take. She did, and they began walking in the same direction she’d walked with Stefan months ago. Nothing felt the same anymore, and Caroline found that she didn’t altogether mind.

“I’m not marrying Aurora.” Klaus spoke softly, a testament to the seriousness of the conversation, or perhaps his reluctance to break the delicate atmosphere that hung over them in the darkness of the early morning. “Not because she wouldn’t have made a fine wife, but because I have decided that if I cannot have the wife I want, I’d rather not have a wife at all.”

“Oh.”

Caroline wasn’t overly surprised by his confession. She was smarter than her appearance would suggest, and she’d been curious about the red-headed woman’s absence on their journey home. There was also the fact that she knew Klaus. He’d kept his distance over the years because she’d asked, but he had never been the type to deny himself the pleasure of getting exactly what he wanted. Once she’d replaced her consistent rejections with even a semblance of uncertainty, she should have expected that he’d put plans in place to ensure that he’d be ready for her once she finally succumbed to his will.

“Yes.” Klaus stopped and turned toward her. He had managed to pull himself together, and was back to his calculating self. “I don’t intend to marry anyone other than you, Caroline Forbes.”

Caroline felt her breath hitch in her throat. “Was that a proposal?”

The look Klaus gave her made it clear what he thought of the very idea.

“Of course not. You deserve festivities, sweetheart. Top hats and silks, and maybe even a feast. As I am unable to devote my full attention to the matter at the current moment, it will have to wait until after I’ve dealt with Henrik’s passing in a proper manner.” He used his free hand to wind a single curl around his finger. “I wanted to make my intentions clear and give you one last opportunity to voice any objections you might have.”

As she looked at him, she knew that if she didn’t speak up now, she would end up married to this man. He had told her that he wouldn’t let her go once he had her. Was she sure?

“No objections,” she said, “I know what I want.”

Klaus’s grin was bright enough to rival the colourful horizon as the first rays of sunlight started to creep over their world.

“Good.”


End file.
